India News | SC Halts Tree Felling on Stretch of Delhi-Dehradun Expressway Till Nov 16

New Delhi, Nov 11 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Centre that there should not be any tree felling on the Ganeshpur-Dehradun Road (NH-72A), which is a part of the Delhi-Dehradun expressway till November 16.

The top court also expressed its anguish with the way the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has dealt with the issue and said the kind of orders which are nowadays passed by the tribunal is “totally unsatisfactory”.

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A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant, and Vikram Nath which agreed to hear a plea filed by an NGO ‘Citizens for Green Doon' seeking direction to stop felling of trees without any clearances on the Ganeshpur-Dehradun Road (NH-72A) stretch told Attorney General KK Venugopal that “till Tuesday next you should raise your hand and there should be no tree felling”.

The bench said it will hear the matter and dispose of the plea instead of remanding it back to the NGT

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“The NGT should apply its mind. It has original jurisdiction over matters related to the environment. The way nowadays orders are passed by the NGT and are totally unsatisfactory. The tribunal has to work in a different way and not this way. It cannot just pass any order and shift its burden to the Supreme Court,” the bench said.

When the bench was initially inclined to remand the matter back to NGT after imposing a stay on tree felling and construction of the road, Venugopal opposed the move vehemently and said that a project which is in the public interest cannot be simply stayed for years.

“If a stay is granted it continues for a couple of years and results in a delay in completion of the project. After 2-3 years of stay, the petitioner backs off but the project gets delayed and incurs additional expenditure on the state exchequer,” he said.

Venugopal urged the top court to not put any stay and instead hear the matter in the top court and finally decide the dispute.

“We have got all necessary clearances as per law. There is no need for any additional clearances for tree felling. The RTI application reply which the petitioner (NGO) is referring to is not made in the correct manner,” he said.

Senior advocate Anita Shenoy, appearing for the NGO, said that only stage one clearances have been granted by the competent authority after which the State government is to issue an order to be put in the public domain allowing tree felling for any project under its jurisdiction.

She said that as per the RTI reply no such orders were issued by the Uttar Pradesh government and Uttarakhand government and the tree felling for the project is illegal.

Shenoy said that tree felling which is going on should be immediately halted and the construction work of the highway should be stopped.

Venugopal said that the petitioner may not have the complete know-how of the things as now stage-2 clearances have also been granted and she can check from the Ministry of Environment and Forests website.

The bench said it will hear the matter next Tuesday on November 16 and asked Venugopal to file all the relevant details in the matter.

On September 7, the top court had refused to entertain a PIL filed by the NGO challenging the forest and wildlife clearances given to Ganeshpur-Dehradun Road (NH-72A) stretch and asked them to first move the NGT with its grievances.

The top court had noted that stage one forest clearance was given in September last year and wildlife clearance was given on January 5, 2021, for a 19.78-km-long stretch of the road from Ganeshpur (in UP) to Dehradun.

Delhi-Doon Expressway will directly connect the two cities after crisscrossing areas like Loni, Baghpat, Shamli, Saharanpur, and Ganeshpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Uttarakhand will have 3.6 kilometres of the expressway while around 16 kilometres will pass through Uttar Pradesh.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)